In July, NBC announced it was shutting down the MSNBC.com news website and redirected all traffic to NBCNews.com. This was due to the fact that NBC had bought out the 50 percent of the website it did not already own from Microsoft. At the time, the specifics behind the financial agreement were not disclosed
Now, the TVNewser.com website reports that a filing this week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reveals that NBC spent $195 million to buy the rest of the website from Microsoft. That means that, at the time, the total value of the site was estimated to be about $390 million.
Last summer, before the takeover, ComScore reported that MSNBC.com had 55.7 million unique visitors per month. Even with the buy out, Microsoft still has an agreement to provide ads for NBCNews.com. In turn, NBC also provides content for Microsoft"s own MSN.com website.
NBC.com has plans to relaunch MSNBC.com as a tie-in website to the MSNBC cable TV news network, with a focus on politics. NBC bought out Microsoft"s stake in the cable network several years ago.
Source: TVNewser.com | Image via NBC